Baghdad
Despite massive security, gunmen picked off at least 20 Shiite pilgrims and wounded 300 in Baghdad this week, during an annual religious pilgrimage. The anniversary of the 12-century death of the seventh imam is a major Shiite holiday, drawing hundreds of thousands of the faithful to the Baghdad mosque where his body lies. During the march last year, a stampede sparked by rumors of a bomb killed nearly 1,000 people. This year, U.S. and Iraqi forces set up four layers of security for crowd control and protection. Interior Ministry groups guarded the mosque, police established perimeter checkpoints, Iraqi troops roamed the streets, and U.S. helicopters watched from the air. Still, snipers hid on rooftops in Sunni neighborhoods and shot the pilgrims as they walked by.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Spain’s deadly high-speed train crashThe Explainer The country experienced its worst rail accident since 2013, with the death toll of 39 ‘not yet final’
-
Can Starmer continue to walk the Trump tightrope?Today's Big Question PM condemns US tariff threat but is less confrontational than some European allies
-
There’s a new serif in town: Trump’s font overhaulIn the Spotlight As the State Department shifts from Calibri to Times New Roman, is this just a ‘typographic dispute’, or the ‘latest battleground’ of a culture war
